Candles and Rain
by TheWildHeffernan
Summary: There are boys in the basement. 26 of them, that you only see out of the corner of your eye, until you blink, and they're gone. Then Rainy came. Rating because it may get graphic later on.
1. Rain in the City

Disclaimer: Ever seen the awesome newsies graphic novel? No? Then I don't own them-yet.

Lorraine stepped out of the train the minute the doors opened. She didn't much care for trains. She found it hard to draw while bouncing around rhythmically to the train tracks. Besides, the women next to her snored all the way from Portsmouth to New York, and five hours of morning breath were about all she could handle.

She was going to stay with her great aunt. Lorraine had last seen Auntie Sarah at a family reunion three years ago, and only remembered a vaguely flowery perfume, and sad brown eyes, with a deepish voice telling her how much she looked like someone or other. Probably another older relative who loved to talk about how old she'd gotten, how beautiful a young woman she was becoming, that sort of thing. She wasn't a beautiful young lady- she was an eleven year old. The sort of one that wears comfy overlarge sweaters and blue jeans, with warm boots. Quiet. And strange. On every report, from every doctor. _Logical. Out of touch. In her own world, disabled. Accelerated. Unknown. Unconfirmed. _Rainy knew this, but didn't really care. She supposed there would be time for looking attractive later in life, when it actually mattered to her. That was the 'unknown' talking, of course, her mother would tell her. Silly mom.

She lugged her bag of books, pads, pencils, and less importantly, clothes, over to the stairs, and walked out into the gigantic foyer she'd read about: the ceiling really was covered in stars. She nodded to herself. It was grand, and it was central. She should have known. She sat tall on a bench, trying to look as visible as possible among the crowds of people. She waved at the women she assumed was Auntie Sarah- old, but nice looking for her age, Rainy supposed. She stood up and walked over.

"Hello, Auntie!"

The women looked around, then seeing her great-niece, ran over and hugged her.

"Oh, Lorraine! I haven't seen you in ages. Do you even remember me? I'm so glad to have you here. We'll have so much fun!"

"Nice to see you too, Auntie." Rainy was a little taken aback by this show of excitement, but she also knew that Sarah was an old spinster, who loved children. Rainy thought they would get along fine, although she had never understood child-loving women who refused to marry. She heaved her bag up over her shoulder and followed Sarah out into the bustling street. The hotel Sarah owned was only a few blocks away, but it took them ages to get through the crowds. Rainy hadn't been in a city like this before. She'd been to Boston a few times, but that had more houses and parks and fewer skyscrapers and squares. Rainy couldn't see anything circular, or anything green.

Once they got to the hotel, Sarah led her upstairs to her apartment. She lived on the top floor of the rectangular, brick, 5-story building. The middle three floors were rooms and suites- nothing fancy, but there was good money in it. The bottom floor was a lobby and dining room, and rooms for the staff members who stayed overnight (a couple of young maids and cleaners.) Sarah had had success in the business sense, at least.

Sarah showed Rainy to a little room she had made up for her, then left to sort out a few matters with the staff, promising to return soon. Rainy went in to her room, unpacked her clothes, and introduced herself to the cat she found under the bed. She wandered around, looking at the pictures on the walls. There weren't many. There was one of the reunion three years ago, and a few nondescript oil paintings of things like kittens and little cottages in the country, and one of a family stiffly posed around the father, one of those old ones where they didn't smile and always looked uncomfortable standing still for so long. The only other one in the hallway wasn't a real photo at all, but a newspaper clipping in a frame, blurry and unfocused. It held a group of boys ranging in age from 8 or so to nearly men, seemingly taken before they had a chance to position themselves. They looked happy about something.

Rainy made her way into the little kitchen area, and started rummaging through the cupboards for something to eat. She was opening a bag of bread when she heard something move behind her. She stopped, straining her ears, but nothing happened. It must be the cat, she thought. She turned back around, but right before she started to eat, she heard a voice. It sounded amused, but it was hard to tell what it said. Rainy looked around the room. She saw the curtain move.

She got up loudly, making sure any intruder would know they should leave, pronto. She looked out onto the fire escape- nothing. She stepped out onto the metal, and looked down at the alley below. There were a few people walking. One of them could have shouted, and their voices carried on the wind that blew the curtain. Rainy wasn't sure why she was reading so much into this. She closed the window, and went back to her room. She was asleep before she decided to take a nap in the first place.


	2. The First Night

When Sarah got back a few hours later, she found her niece asleep. She smiled and pulled a blanket over the girl, before going to her own room. It was only about seven, but she was exited to start showing Lorraine around tomorrow, and decided that they both may as well get some sleep. After all, it was hard to sleep around here sometimes, even if a haunted hotel was great for tourists who wanted to see that sort of thing.

Sarah was brushing her teeth when she saw the boy in the mirror. She jumped a little. She hadn't seen any of the boys in years. She heard them every couple months or so, and almost weekly they would move something in one room or another, but they didn't show themselves very often, at least not to her. The older she got, the less often they came. It was always children who saw them. A few parents staying here had said they'd woken to hear their darling sons and daughters speaking to somebody in another room, somebody who always disappeared the moment the door was opened. This was always dismissed as fakery, or attention seeking, but Sarah knew better. She had spoken to a girl a few years ago that kept saying she had talked to a handsome cowboy with a New York drawl. There was that boy, too, no more than three who insisted he'd been asked to play, but his parents had come in before the cards could be dealt. They had described to her names and faces, even clothing. She knew they were there. And now one had come to say hello.

It was the blond one with the glasses. He had never spoken to her, even when he was alive. She wasn't sure he spoke English at all. He just stood there for a moment, his charred clothing and sooty, tear-streaked face gnawing at her inside. _Crazy Sarah. Poor, old Miss Jacobs, she was. _She supposed they wouldn't want to scare the children, but someone who had watched it all wasn't worth bothering about. His head was cocked to the left at the same unnatural angle it had been at since he hit the pavement 57 years ago. Sarah didn't turn. She stared until she had to blink, and then the boy was gone.

Rainy could hear something in the kitchen. It wasn't her aunt. It was a boy, a kid, and he was giggling hysterically. She got up and turned on her flashlight, wondering what a boy was doing in her aunt's house at…1:34, by her watch. She crept out towards the kitchen, sleepily annoyed and ready to sternly bring this kid back to whatever room he was staying in. Her flashlight pierced the darkness, and the giggling turned into a panicked whisper, then a clatter of shoes on the floor, Rainy ran the rest of the way, and on the other side of the now bread-and-spreads strewn kitchen the door was just swinging shut. She jumped through just before it swung shut. She followed the footsteps down the stairs, and then down more stairs…they kept going down. She heard him whisper frantically

"C'mon, ya goose, we gotta lose her!"

So there were two of them. She called after them.

"Wait, who are you? You're not in trouble or anything! I'm not mad anymore, don't-"

She tripped over the threshold of a dark doorway, on was sent sprawling diagonally, lying on a flight of stairs. Her flashlight went spiraling off into the darkness on either side. She hissed through her teeth, trying not to cry. She worked back up to her feet, and waited until her entire front half hurt a little less. She felt around the walls for a light switch, but couldn't find one. Dangit. She focused on the flashlight beam in a far corner of the basement. She could see nothing in its illuminated field.

'Guys? I'm really not mad. You guys have to come up. You can't stay down here, or someone'll worry…" Someone giggled, and someone else shushed him. Yet another one, and this one sounded older, whispered

"Sheesh, guys, you made her trip. Give her back the torch or whatever," the same voice raised itself, and directed itself at her. "Little miss, we ain't gonna hurt ya. Me an' my friends ain't spoke to no one in awhile, but don't be scared." A voice with just as heavy an accent as the first one, but a bit harsher, added

"Yeah, trust me, we prob'ly couldn't violate ya even if we wanted to." There was a thud and a yelp as someone pushed him over, saying

"Ain't ya got no excuse ta be rude ta the goil."

"How many of you are there?' Rainy squeaked. There was a pause, and someone said "26." The door slammed shut behind her, and somebody tapped her on the shoulder. She yelped and turned around, to see a sturdy teenager in overalls holding out her flashlight to her. She shone it all over, but saw nobody. She turned around, but the boy in the overalls had disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared in the first place. The door opened, and as she ran through it and sprinted towards her bed, she heard a piping little voice ask cordially

"Do come back, sometime, miss!"

Rainy pulled the covers over her head, but it was a long time before she fell asleep again.

A/N

Review or wee ghosties will raid your kitchen as you sleep!


	3. Natural History of Sarah

Rainy spent the rest of the evening listing possibilities. Ghost was the first one. They dressed in old clothing, used old words, and appeared from nowhere. There were to many obvious flaws in that theory, however. They were solid. They were in full color. They spoke normally, and sometimes walked normally. They took food. Were they just a bunch of homeless boys living in the basement and stealing food? There wouldn't be a chance of going undetected for long, and they had only taken a couple sandwiches. Not nearly enough to feed 26 teenagers. Plus there were the times they didn't walk. What then, invisible homeless acrobats?

Sarah turned around to see Mush Meyers sitting on her bed. She was surprised. Two in two days She guessed they just didn't like her as much now, all gray hair and worn face. Anyway, Mush was sitting on her bed, and he was talking to her.

"Hey, Sarah. Who's the goil? She a relative?"

"Yes, Mush. She's David's granddaughter." Mush looked up in disbelief.

"Ya mean Davey's married? With children?"

"And grandchildren."

"God! How old is he?"

"72." Mush's eyes widened, and he squeaked a little.

"Sarah, that means I'm 73! I'm an old man!" Mush's lip started to tremble. Sarah went over to pat him on the back, but he pushed them away with blistered hands.

"Shhh, It's okay."

"No, it ain't! It ain't okay to forget stuff like that! It happens so often now to everyone. You just get all vague, and you wander around and talk to people, but they don't notice, and you don't care. And everyone flickers, save the dead ones. They look real, and they notice, but it don't matter, cause you can't remember why you're there in the first place…" Mush was actually crying now, but his tears steamed off his face before they fell. Sarah sat next to him, and shut her eyes. When she opened them, the door was swinging. She sighed. Wouldn't it be better for everyone if they all could forget completely? Unless you remember to remember, the forgetting isn't a problem.

Lorraine walked in.

"Auntie?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Has anyone ever seen a ghost around here?" Sarah tried to look calm.

"Well, some children have… or they said they did…" Lorraine nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, really. Just ask it…um… whenever I stay anywhere. Cause it would be interesting if there were. Not that there is. Just asking." Sarah nodded slowly. Lorraine walked out.

"Good night, Auntie."

"Good night, Lorraine."

A/N: I know that was a short one, but I promise the next one'll be a doozy!

Also, review, if you value your life! Not really. But please?


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